The Stranger's Child download epub

The Stranger's Child download epub

Alan Hollinghurst,: The Stranger's Child

Description

This is Alan Hollinghurst's first novel since "The Line of Beauty", winner of the 2004 Man Booker Prize. In the late summer of 1913 the aristocratic young poet Cecil Valance comes to stay at 'Two Acres', the home of his close Cambridge friend George Sawle. The weekend will be one of excitements and confusions for all the Sawles, but it is on George's sixteen-year-old sister Daphne that it will have the most lasting impact, when Cecil writes her a poem which will become a touchstone for a generation, an evocation of an England about to change for ever. Linking the Sawle and Valance families irrevocably, the shared intimacies of this weekend become legendary events in a larger story, told and interpreted in different ways over the coming century, and subjected to the scrutiny of critics and biographers with their own agendas and anxieties. In a sequence of widely separated episodes we follow the two families through startling changes in fortune and circumstance. At the centre of this often richly comic history of sexual mores and literary reputation runs the story of Daphne, from innocent girlhood to wary old age.
Around her Hollinghurst draws an absorbing picture of an England constantly in flux. As in "The Line of Beauty", his impeccably nuanced exploration of changing taste, class and social etiquette is conveyed in deliciously witty and observant prose. Exposing our secret longings to the shocks and surprises of time, "The Stranger's Child" is an enthralling novel from one of the finest writers in the English language.

Sir Peter Ustinov's beautifully crafted autobiography is told with exquisite wit and insight. From his birth in April 1921, it spans his extraordinary career as actor, playwright, film star and director, confirming his early belief that he is 'irrevocably betrothed to laughter'. Ustinov's renowned gift for mimicry is exploited to the full in "Dear Me". Eccentric relatives, school masters, sergeant majors and manic Hollywood moguls are all brought unforgettably to life.
In 1957, when piano teacher Ilona Talivaldis arrived in the sleepy little town of Jingera, she was mocked as the 'reffo from Latvia'. Now, just four years on, she and her fourteen-year-old daughter Zidra are at the heart of the community. But when Ilona becomes involved in the plights of two very different children she puts this peaceful life in jeopardy. For Ilona's sensitive young protege , Philip, is slowly being crushed by relentless bullying at Sydney's exclusive Stambroke College. With his wealthy parents turning a blind eye, only Ilona can see the disturbing warning signs. At the same time, Zidra receives a cryptic message from her long-lost friend Lorna, who years earlier The Stranger's Child free ebook was snatched by the government from the Wallaga Lake Reserve. Now the gutsy Lorna has a daring plan - but she needs Zidra and Ilona's help. Ilona will do all she can to help these two vulnerable children on their difficult journeys. But will she be in time to avert a tragedy?